Three Pieces of Karima

Karima Hoisan provides a little life lesson in the midst of an impressive career of creativity on Kitely, in the form of her YouTube channel. Memory is important. You probably already know that Karima shares poems, personal reflections, and anecdotes on her website the Digital Rabbit Hole, but perhaps the most enduring and accessible record of her work on almost two dozen regions - called rather grandiloquently 'worlds' on Kitely -  is Karima's YouTube channel.
It's fair to say that Karima Hoisan has always posted wonderful content on Youtube over the past 12 years, as it's an ideal locus for her multimedia presence, in intimate collaboration over the years with Dale Innis, and, before her untimely death, Natascha Randt. Recently, she has begun expanding her video repertoire. Here are three pieces of it.

Karima and Nat

Much of Kitely is inaccessible to the general visitor, making it a bit of a black hole of creativity from the point of view of the hypergrid explorer - there's probably good stuff happening but it's too difficult to get to, so one just shrugs, and moves on. Karima is one of a handful of residents who have consistently made out-of-town  tourists like the Safari group welcome. Our first visit to one of her builds -Vector's Vortex - was nine years ago today, in November 2014. Yet despite repeated Safaris to builds by Dale, Nat and Karima, - with contributions by other pals, from time to time - we have barely scratched the surface when it comes to the range of imaginative chapters they have put together in the past decade or so.

A Scientific Safari Finale

Our final stop on this final Safari of 2023 was on OSGrid, at the home of Caro Fayray. Caro is a long time resident, and also a volunteer administrator,  of the grid often dubbed 'the crossroads of Opensim'.

Caro Fayray

 Each year Caro takes responsibility for organizing, displaying, labelling, and promoting the original content that is donated for OSgrid's Auction - people can buy for real money content that is not available anywhere else in opensim, and the funds they pay go toward the maintenance of the OSGrid servers, which as everyone knows, are entirely funded by volunteer contributions.

On Echo Rock, we took our places in a comfortable meeting area.

Caro Fayray: Hello everyone and welcome to ECHO ROCK - FUN SCIENCE This region has shared environment, take a seat or pose on a column:) Local Chat is simwide to make interaction easier. Feel  free to  explore  if you want. Many are interactive so don't just cam:) In  your  invite you say  'art' thirza... I  never thought  of this as art:) 

Alex Salamander: Hello

Tosha Tyran: Hi

Kelso Uxlay: Hello Caro... camming around... Volcano erupting

Telling Tales on Nara's Nook

We began the 30th and final Safari of 2023 on Nara's Nook grid - although to many it looked awfully like another place - the Opensim Community conference keynote regions, and for good reason. We were there to help the Next Dimension group to road test their OSCC presentation. Siobhan Muir, Dorena Bree, and Nara 'Nara Nook' Malone, have been developing their unique storytelling system where you become a 3D component in the plot. They plan to show off their progress so far at the December conference.

The usual mulitlingial crowd assembled on Nara's Nook grid!

The set for New Dimension Tales presentation

Yara Eild: Hello @  all

Victoria Logan: abrazos

Remembrance at Georgetown

To mark the passing of one year since the end of hostilities in the First World War - still called the Great War at the time - a new annual event was organized, called Armistice Day. The War had officially ended on 11 November 1918. In London a new temporary memorial, pale and austere, had been set up in 1919. It was called the Cenotaph, literally meaning "empty tomb", to symbolize all those who had lost their lives in the conflict. The permanent version of the monument, by Lutyens, was completed in time for the 1920 commemoration. 

It was an Australian journalist, Edward Honey, who proposed possibly the most important part of that first Armistice Day... the idea of a minute's silence in respect for those who had died. The suggestion was picked up by the authorities, who made it a central part of the ceremony, at eleven minutes past eleven. All were agreed that the event should not be a celebration of military might, but a 'devout invocation for the utter necessity of World Peace.' This solemn and deeply meaningful tribute to those lost in conflict has endured for over 100 years, and is marked throughout the Commonwealth and beyond as Remembrance Day.  

Tig Eberdene of Neverworld Grid has a special event coming up on the Friday before Remembrance Day (because naturally the real thing needs to be celebrated in the real world) but her tribute to the fallen is no less poignant and well prepared for being in the virtual. You can visit her region over on Neverworld and see her recreation of a military base, Canadian style, and get a sense of what the day and the armed forces in general mean to her.

The region is called Georgetown and it's part military base, part township, and all very much Canada.

The glorious fall colors feature here, alongside a carefully constructed collection of historic architecture, modern buildings, woods, and mountains - and even a set of military trenches! Tig hasn't been on Neverworld all that long, but you can tell immediately that she is a seasoned builder, and this is not her first rodeo - the general build and all the little personalized details make that clear.

Happy Birthday Neverworld!

 Neverworld Grid is celebrating eight years of fun and creativity this week. on a platform famous for the ephemeral nature of so many virtual places, what a milestone that is!

If you missed all the parties, you are still in time to check out the excellent Birthday Build on the nattily-named NWBB8.

Lorenza's Women

 Lorenza Colicigno [it→en]: Welcome to The City of Women

Unadecal Masala: The City of Women??? I'm coming to live here

Arriving on NoiLab

This beautiful region is made up of historical backstories and fine Mediterranean architecture representing layers os history going back several thousand years. As usual the full HG address is at the end of the post. This is an opportunity to expand your knowledge of western culture, with a feminist bias, while being entertained by so many sights and animations, you'll barely realize you're learning something! Our hostess, Lorenza Colicigno, who together with Tonino Lane has put together one of the most uniquely useful and attractive builds on the hyperverse.

Timeless Ariadne

 This week we were able to visit another super region on Groovyverse, by Sam Timeless. His creative skillz are many and varied, this time it was a perfectly proportioned Safari-sized stroll in and around a volcanic lake. As usual the HG address is at the end of the post.

Ariadne on GroovyVerse

But first... If you've ever wondered what happens before the Safari gets started, we all basically sit around the fire and talk nonsense. Like this.

Tosha Tyran: can't anybody set the poor little lama free?

Thirza Ember: he's a drama llama, he needs to stay put, Don't feel sorry for him.

Nara Nook: poor baby

Tosha Tyran: look at its sad, sad eyes, and the bucket is not full of water - its full with his tears

Nara Nook: I used to do a website for a llama farm. They spit at you when you try and get their picture... after all the spit and trouble, turned out no one wanted to eat llama burgers so the job didn't last long

Tosha Tyran:  oh... but aren't they normally used for therapies? the people cuddle them and go for walks with them. I think they are just the friendliest looking, nicest animals - next time I come with some signs and start a demo: free the animals

Thirza Ember: not if they spit, I suppose... walk and wash all in one

Nara Nook: lol